Breakout Trading (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

When the currency price moves beyond the period of consolidation or range trading, a breakout typically occurs. Massive profits are what breakout trading can provide you. Who doesnt want to reap massive profits from a big price move in a short time?

A breakout occurs when the price moves above or below a support or resistance level whether temporarily or permanently. There are times when trading the breakout can be very profitable even though breakouts are known to be technically unstable.

In order to trade breakouts with a higher probability of success, you will have to take into account many market factors including both the technical and the fundamental analysis.

The volume information is easily available for stocks and futures. Both are traded on a centralized exchange. At the end of the day, the traders can find out the volume of each security that had been traded during the day. Information about volume is critical to trading the breakout.

This data cannot be collected due to the decentralized nature of the currency markets. Volume data is not available for currency markets due to its Over the Counter nature. Lack of forex volume data is a huge disadvantage to forex traders. Volume reveals where the market is positioned or positioning.

Volume is a very important criterion for any breakout trading strategy as successful breakouts are generally accompanied by a rise in volume. When the price attempts a breakout of a significant support or resistance level, it signals a change in the underlying supply and demand conditions possibly triggered by a change in market sentiments caused by some new markets fundamentals.

Successful breakouts must be accompanied with a strong surge of momentum in the direction of the breakout. Price breakouts can be of two types: 1) Continuation Breakouts and 2) Reversal Breakouts.

Continuation Breakout: In a continuation breakout, the price action climbs higher in continuation of an uptrend or falls further lower in a downtrend. Currency prices break out of an established price level to again resume the underlying trend. The breakout occurs after a period of consolidation. The buyers and sellers of the currency pair try to regroup and think about the next price move.

Reversal Breakout: A breakout my lead to a trend reversal and the beginning of a new trend in the opposite direction! Reversal breakout means a new trend in the opposite direction caused by new market fundamentals.

There are many times when the price action does not move in a straightforward direction in the markets. A false breakout may occur. The prices may break the support or resistance but then retreat back into the previous price zone.

Stopping out most of the breakout traders if they have placed their stops just above or below the resistance or support levels! The worst kind of a breakout is the whipsaw type. - 23221

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Know The Forex Market. Learn Forex Trading!

Gold Investing Attracts Attention Like Nothing Else

By Mike Swanson

It can be hard making a few extra dollars these days. Believe it or not, there is a specific way that you can definitely get rich with. Gold investing is a safer investment than the stock market is. People all over the world are getting involved with gold and making huge amounts of money. Find out what you need to do in order to get started.

If this is your first time with any investment, get yourself a broker. A broker is looked at as the Seeing Eye dog of the investment world. With gold investment brokers, you are going to get a lot of great information. They will not take a commission until you make anything, so find one near you.

If you are just browsing around, ensure that you look at the gold investing websites. There are hundreds of websites for gold and currency trading. This is going to be a great way to make a lot of money. The internet is fast and it involves everyone in the entire world.

The world of gold is a fast paced world. Once you are in, you need to make your money and get out. If you are looking for a long term investment, this is not going to be one. The great thing about gold is it is a very short investment. Once you make your money you are all done!

It is also very important to look at your money situation. If you are struggling as it is it may not be a good idea to invest. On the other hand, if you have an extra 200 dollars that you can spend, give it a try. You could easily double that within a day.

Gold investing is a whole lot better than investing in the stock market right now. Take all of these tools along with you, when you feel you are ready to invest. Once you make your quick money, get out while the going is still good! - 23221

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What Happens When You Buy A Stock

By Michael Swanson

The question of the day is whether investing in stocks is an idea that will work for you or not. If you compare stocks to bonds they have earned people more money in the past. As a stock holder you will own part of the business you have bought stock in.

When you invest in stocks you are supplying money to a company and in turn you will have partial ownership in this company. Common stocks are what most people will deal with when they become involved in the stock market. These are the stocks that no restrictions are placed on and any one is able to buy.

As you buy stock in a company you will become known as a shareholder in that company. Another fancy way of saying that you are part owner in the company due to placing in money. As a business increases in value or does well, prices of stocks will rise. This is the way in which you will earn money, if you sell a stock after it's rose up in cost from what you've paid.

When the board of directors votes as a shareholder you get a say in the voting too. This means that new developments will need to be approved by the board. Becoming a part owner in a company is a big decision so you still need to choose your stock wisely.

Though you will not always see the pluses when it comes to investing in stocks. If the company hits a rough time or goes out of business you will lose money. At times you may even lose everything you've invested in those stocks.

There are different types of stock too. One of the examples can be a business that is family owned, but they need to find investors, they will put some of those shares in stock and allow it to be sold to the public. In those cases these shares may be said to be either a Class A stock or a Class B stock. To learn even more about stocks be sure to read up more online. - 23221

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High Probability Forex Trading Using Engulfing Patterns

By Tim Barnby

Few things are more satisfying to me that bare chart trading. Ive seen traders with so many indicators on their screen that I could not even see the price of the currency pair. What do any of these indicators tell you anyway? Do I need a MACD or a CCI? I can see which direction the trend is moving without them. How about a stochastic? I can see where candles are closing relative to the high or low. Other than some horizontal lines at key support and resistance levels, some Fibonacci retracements, and trend lines I often have nothing on my charts at all. All of these are topics for future articles.

A bullish engulfing pattern is characterized by having a real body which completely engulfs the real body of the preceding candle. A simpler way of describing this is that the bullish engulfing candle has a higher open and a lower close than the preceding candle. A bearish engulfing candle has a lower open and a higher close than the bar immediately preceding it.

The bullish and bearish engulfing patterns are powerful indicators of a trend reversal. Engulfing patterns must appear after a significant run up or down in price to be considered valid. When the engulfing pattern presents itself at a probable price reversal zone, or a confluence of support or resistance it is even more reliable. My experience has shown these patterns to be over 75% reliable, and normally offer at least a two to one reward to risk ratio when traded on the one hour or four hour charts. They are even more reliable on the daily and weekly charts.

There are a couple of valid methods for trading engulfing patterns. The first is pretty basic. You place a market order at the close of the candle. Your stop loss order goes a few pips past the opposite side of the engulfing candle, and the target goes somewhere at least twice the distance of the stop loss. Using this method, if the engulfing candle has a 50 pip range, your stop loss would be about 55 pips and your target would be about 110 pips away from your entry. The more advanced method involves pulling a Fibonacci retracement tool on the engulfing candle. Place your entry order at the 38.2%, 50% or 61.8% Fibonacci level of the candle, and place the stop loss in the same position as the first method. This method gives you a smaller stop loss, which offers you a much high per pip value, and a bigger target. It has a lower rate of successful fills, so youll have fewer trades using this entry method.

No matter what your method of entry is, you will profit from trading these powerful reversal indicators. Youll also save yourself the stress of conflicting technical indicators and cluttered screens. Trade this pattern for a week and see if I am wrong. - 23221

About the Author:

For more information on FX Trading, please come to the Market Mover Edge and look at our mentoring programs and live trading rooms. You can join my FREE FX signals list at FX Master-Mind Newsletter

Money Management in Currency Trading (Part III)

By Ahmad Hassam

Perhaps the best advice that you will receive from someone is live to trade another day. Currency markets are brutal, volatile and ruthless. In minutes you can lose many pips. You should learn to survive in the markets in the long run. Do not lose all your money in a single day.

The single most common factor that causes many currency traders to blow up their accounts and lose all their money is greed. You start taking unnecessary risks when you get greedy. You will spend many hours trying to find the Holy Grail technical indictor or a forex robot that can make you rich. You will believe that by discovering that secret, you will become rich.

Unfortunately there is no Holy Grail for anyone in trading. You will win and you will lose. So you must learn not to risk more than 2% of your account on one trade. Grow your account incrementally over time. Never ever be tempted to risk big making one single winning trade that can make you rich.

Now, know how much you are willing to risk in a single trade. I have said 2%. But if you want to be aggressive you can go up to 5%. But stay between 2-5%. Dont exceed it. On the other hand, if you are conservative, you should consider risking between 1-2% only.

Once you have decided on the amount of risk you are willing to take, the rest is simple. Suppose you have a $50,000 account. You decide on a risk of 2% only. How much you can risk on a single trade? (50,000)(0.02)=$1,000. This is the maximum amount you should risk on a single trade.

However, if you are trading more than one position at the same time, the amount may become higher. Lets suppose, you are in 3 trades! You risk only $1,000 per trade. So the total money at risk will be (3) (1000) =$3,000. When you have determined your risk, you are can determine the trade size.

Trade size is the number of currency pair contracts you purchase in any one single trade. You need to first determine where you want to put your stop loss in order to determine the trade size. Lets use a simple example to make it clear and suppose you are willing to risk $1000 on trading EUR/USD pair. You decide on a stop loss of 50 pips. Each pip on EUR/USD pair is equal to $10, so the number of contracts that you can trade are 2= (1,000)/ (50) (10).

Once you have determined your risk level and calculated the trade size, you have taken the guesswork out of your trading. Now, you can sleep well knowing how much of your amount is at risk and that you are going to be able to trade tomorrow, no matter what happens today.

Using these common and simple money management rules will help you avoid the pitfall of losing almost all the money in your account. Never ever take more than 2-5% risk in any single trade. Learning to survive the markets and trading another day is the essence of trading. This can help take your trading to the next level of profitability. - 23221

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Trade Dow Futures. Learn Forex Trading.